It's the end of the year, and I'm thinking about all sorts of things, trying to do a little planning, hoping to make the most of 2012.  I'm thinking about doing some gardening and yard work this year, trying to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be doing to jump-start my five-year-old son's formal education, hoping not to miss the special occasions for celebration that are coming.

The same old spiel: This year I would like to become a better wife and mother. I would like to begin to put the proper emphasis on managing our home: not too much, not too little. I would like to live healthily this year.

I prayed this morning for several things, having copied down I John 5:14-15 in my notebook. "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask for anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of Him (NIV--the pronoun capitalization is mine)."

For the past couple of days I have been making decisions about what my Bible reading plan is going to be like this year, having perused this blog post yesterday.

Let me say here that I didn't read Justin Taylor's suggestions very carefully. I did not find out what the strengths or weaknesses of any of those plans were. Let me offer this suggestion:

A schedule you have to print out to follow, that fragments your reading among various books each day, is not going to hold your attention or build interest in God's Word unless you are already quite the disciplined person. If you are more like me, if you want to actually read the Bible this year and get something out of it, Keep It Simple.

I tried for years to follow one of these lovely plans, and never made it very far beyond January no matter how much wiggle-room the reading plan supplied. If you really want to read the Bible this year, this is what I recommend:

Set aside a particular time for reading every day. I don't care when it is. I started out by reading in the evening; now I prefer to do it early in the morning. Set a reasonable goal for yourself, and commit to meeting that goal most days. 

This'll be my third year to read the entire thing through.

The first year I read a few chapters each night, and read a little extra on Saturdays. I'd read two chapters from one book, and two chapters from another, unless the first book really captured my attention. Some weeks I didn't read at all, but I never let it go for more than about a week at a time without reading. You might have to be a little more strict with yourself in that regard. My goal that year was simply to get through the material. I wanted to get the words into my brain so that I could be mentally working on thenm sort of in the background.

I'd read a couple of chapters from one of the Old Testament narrative books, and a couple of chapters from the New Testament, or I'd do narrative/prophecy, or some other such combination. Whatever seemed good to me at the time. I think the key was to stick with a book until I had read it from the beginning to the end, and make sure that I covered all 66 books (in the Protestant Bible). At this point I wasn't particularly concerned about reading comprehension.

The next year I was more attentive in my reading. I found that I didn't like separating my reading between two different book as I tended to lose a sense of the book by so doing. My goal that year was to pay attention to what I read, and to write down any questions or inspirations I may have concerning the text. If you look at my notebook you'll see that my notes gradually evolved during the course of the year. I started copying down verses that became important, writing out prayers etc. The only thing I made myself do was summarize, and I was lenient with myself even in that. If I really didn't have time to summarize I didn't summarize. But most of the time I made at minimum a brief summary of what I read in each chapter. It's been a wonderful exercise for me, and has greatly enriched my experience of God.

In the past year I have begun to notice that reading a book wasn't enough. I really need to study it to know what is there. This year my goals is to study a book at a time, and not worry about how long it takes me. I tend to rush, so what I really need this year is to slow down. I also want to try to read through the entire Bible at least once this year, but this is a separate activity from study. For the reading I'm going to use a New Century Version that has been sitting on my shelf for sometime and just read. For study I will use either NIV (New International Version, which is the one I made heavy notes on last year) or NASB (New American Standard, which is the one I have used and carried around with me for the past sixteen years).

That's it. Simple. The point is not to read a certain amount in a year. The point is not to become a renowned Biblical scholar. The point is to make the Bible an integral and integrated part of your daily life.

The best way I know to do that is to make Bible reading a priority, but also to Keep It Simple.

Has anyone ever put a patent on those words?

A Review of J.P. Moreland

The following is a book review I just added to my profile on goodreads.com. It concerns Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason on the Life of the Soul by J.P. Morleand. I'm afraid the voice was influenced by a television review I read this morning on hulu.com. I started working on a blog post yesterday that was inspired by this self-same book, but I may not get to finish that one, so here's the review:

I loved reading this book. It filled a need for a week and a half that I've been feeling for over a year: the need for someone to open the discussion of what it means to have a Christian intellectual mind. I don't think the book is perfect, not by any means, and sometimes I considered Moreland's logic to be less than convincing, mostly because he holds logic so highly, and applies it so pain-stakingly in his appologetics that he misses certain non-logical but valid objections to his case. His argumentation wasn't perfect, in other words, but I think his view of things is very sane, and useful to those who feel like they have missed something in their pursuit of a Christian education. He offers plenty of practical suggestions for the church, which he posits should be seriously considered and discussed, if not assiduously implemented (and I did have to look up the word "assiduously" to make sure I was using it correctly). In the last chapter he comes right out and says, "If you don't agree with the ideas and suggestions to follow, then at least argue about them among your brothers and sisters. Find out where and why you think I am wrong and come up with better suggestions." I love this. Moreland says, if you disagree with me, that's fine, but please take the time to figure out how and why so that you may be edified. This is exactly how I think any suggestion in any book should be read and evaluated. This book offers a useful (if slightly confusing) introduction to logical constructions. I'm pursuing supplementary material in that regard. J.P. Moreland's overall point is that every Christian ought to be equipped in such a way that they are able to think through quandaries they encounter in every area of life and hold them up to the light of truth. They must be confident in what they believe so they can be fearless (and non-defensive) in their interactions with others. And those Christians are pursuing the life of the mind should be supported in this so that they may be effective in their service to the cause of Christ.

Hastily Written Commentary on the Hustle and Bustle Associated with Christmas

I'm feeling grumpy about gift-giving. Why? First of all, I'm not very good at it. My mind and heart are not alert to notice what might make a nice gift for someone I care about, except at the most incongruous and inappropriate times. Second, I hate shopping, and the very last thing I want to do is be in a store when it is at it's busiest. Third, I am absolutely no-good rotten at planning ahead. I thought that I would be very good at it, but I'm not.

This is a problem when it comes to birthdays and at Christmas time. It just so happens that all of these things happen in our little family unit in the space of three short months. It certainly doesn't help that I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, to top it all off. If you look at the symptoms as described on Pub MedHealth's website (linked above), you'll know quite a bit about what my life tends to feel like during the winter months. Add to that the lovely and enchanting pressures of the holidays.

But wait! What's this? Nancy Wilson wrote a true and lovely piece about gift-giving that she posted on her blog today. Reading Nancy's post doesn't exactly make me feel better, but it does give me hope that even though Christmas is often threatened with the danger of losing it's meaning and specialness, all is not loss. Gift giving isn't just about the gifts. And with Nancy's words in mind, maybe I'll get to have a better attitude about it when it comes around again this time next year.

My Love of Books Is Quite Ridiculous For the Moment, I Admit

It turns out that I have little interest in writing right now. Reading has been my focus for several weeks, and shall continue, it seems, to be so for the foreseeable future. I invite you to visit my profile on GoodReads, or to view the sidebar to the right of this post to see what I am currently reading.

The Mystery of G.K. Chesterton's Wonderful Facility with Argument

I would like to know G.K. Chesterton's secret, how he could debate with such men as George Bernard Shaw, and disagree in such a way as to criticize ideas without alienating the man. How does one learn how to do this? How can I learn to take an idea, analyze it thoroughly, and criticize its weak points, while still elevating the dignity of my opponent? I'm beginning to hate that word, opponent, as I become more and more aware of its singular negativity. I've noticed recently that it must be human-nature to see anyone who disagrees with one as an enemy to be crushed, and I wonder if therein lies the problem? Why is it so difficult to disagree as friends, with the purpose of sharpening one another, instead of seeking rhetorical annihilation? I would very much like to develop such a skill.

The desire to do so, at least that is a place to start. My Dad seems to do this well, somehow managing to make opponents into friends. Our egos are generally so fragile that we tend to take contradiction personally. A shame it is, a shame. or—A shame, it is a shame.

excerpt from a version of The Living

An excerpt from Annie Dillard's "The Living" as published in its longer short-story form:

He was aware that common wisdom counseled that love was a malady that blinded lovers' eyes like acid. Love's skewed sight made hard features appear harmonious, and sinners appear saints, and cowards appear heroes. Clare was by no means an original thinker, but on this one point he had recently reached an opposing view: that lovers alone see what is real. When he courted June he thought it a privilege to wash dishes with her in river sand. He thought it a privilege to hold her cutaway coat, to look at Mount Baker from her side; he thought it a privilege to hear her family's stories over tea and watch her eyebrows rise and fall. Now, he knew it was.

Is this too romantical? I don't think it is. For several years now I have been observing the mystery of beauty, and I don't believe I understand it any better now than I did when I began. I notice that love uncovers beauty. Infatuation, which carries with it an intrinsic lack of knowing, is what covers ugliness and blinds men's eyes. Love redeems the beloved in the lover's gaze, cherishing what is there even as it seeks for betterment. I think the conflict one experiences within marriage betrays a lack, or failure, of love, a lack that may only be made up when we ask God to let us see the beloved as He sees, and love them thus as well. And this too is love: the commitment to seek God's love when our own limited capacities for love fail.

I love, and cannot love, and this is a mystery as mysterious as beauty. That those who have rejected God can sometimes love as He does, this too is a mystery, though I believe it happens sometimes because of grace, and because of His mark upon them.

Is this mystical? It is. Articulated well? Perhaps, perhaps not. I can't say that I know, but I think it is true. I'm trying now to remember the Spanish phrase we translate into English as "so-so." Asi'-asi'?

The Artist, Conflict, Voices, and the Inner Mono(Dia)log

Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird, writing about the internal conflict that occurs while the writer writes or the artist creates:

If you're not careful, station KFKD will play in your head twenty-four hours a day, nonstop, in stereo. Out of the right speaker in your inner ear will come the endless stream of self-aggrandizement, the recitation of one's specialness, of how much open and gifted and brilliant and knowing and misunderstood and humble one is. Out of the left speaker will be the rap songs of self-loathing, the lists of all the things one doesn't do well, of all the mistakes one has made today and over an entire lifetime, the doubt, the assertion that everything that one touches turns to shit, that one doesn't do relationships well, that one is in every way a fraud, incapable of selfless love, that one has not talent or insight, and on and on and on.

Levi Weaver posted this video last week on youtube. It too is about conflict. I leave you to draw your own conclusions: